Mike Shaw

Left: Marine lipids for supplements. Center: Black current extract to reduce stress, now marketed under the brand name delcyan™ as a nutraceutical or functional food ingredient. Right: Annual Report 2013 with embedded augmented reality content.

Mike Shaw is part of the Communications Team at Plant & Food Research – one of New Zealand’s largest scientific research organisations. Mike is passionate about the power of digital communications and the new tools and technologies that allow companies to communicate with their stakeholders.

Plant & Food Research

Plant & Food Research brings together over 80 years of food, horticulture, arable and seafood research in a single institute to deliver knowledge and technology that serves New Zealand industry and society.

As one of eight Crown Research Institutes owned and operated by the New Zealand Government, the company’s mission is to deliver a high impact contribution to the nation’s economic, social and environmental prosperity, achieved through engagement with the horticulture, arable, seafood, food and beverage industry sectors.

Left: New apple washing system, with protocols to effectively remove insect pests. Center: New marine facility for expansion of seafood research and new technologies. Center: Kiwi bud on new more-tolerant cultivars. Right: Releasing the parasitoid wasp Mastrus ridens as a new biocontrol agent for use in apple orchards.

The impact of Plant & Food Research’s science is measured through the industry sectors that their work underpins, in particular the growth in export value of each sector. A key requirement of the statutory reporting to Government (via the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment) is Plant & Food Research’s Annual Report. In recent years Plant & Food Research has made increased efforts to reach broader audiences via their Annual Report in a cost-effective way. Most recently this led the Communications Team, along with their in-house Design & Photography Team to incorporate ‘Augmented Reality’ via LAYAR™ , seamlessly bringing together their printed and digital content and delivering an interactive and engaging experience to the reader.